Photo By Whitney Katz | During Pacific Partnership 2013, Joint Communications Support Element members, U.S....... read more read more
NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. - A team of highly-trained and experienced joint communicators from the 224th Joint Communications Support Squadron, a Georgia Air National Guard unit aligned with the Joint Communications Support Element (JCSE), completed a four-month deployment in support of Pacific Partnership 2013 (PP13) on Aug. 16.
Teams of medical, dental, veterinarian and engineering professionals traveled to six island nations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region aboard the USS Pearl Harbor to enhance disaster response preparedness. These teams also completed service projects in their respective fields to strengthen local stability and regional infrastructures in case of natural disasters.
The JCSE team provided ship-to-shore connectivity and on-the-spot communications solutions - an integral piece of this mission. Not only did JCSE’s extensive expertise and versatile communications equipment demonstrate the command’s unique capabilities, but the team maintained vital communication services for PP13 participants.
The JCSE team employed four Initial Entry Packages (IEP), a commercial airline checkable equipment set that supports up to eight users, to provide the unclassified voice and data networks for the PP13 teams. At each port call JCSE’s support provided mission-critical connectivity to beach detachments responsible for the movement of personnel on and off the ship. Their support also ensured the medical teams at various sites ashore had open lines of communication to reach back to doctors on the ship, better serving patients’ needs.
In addition to this routine support, this mission also required JCSE’s communications experts to adapt to fluctuating necessities. The team’s in-depth understanding of the communications equipment and the operational environment allowed them to rapidly modify their capabilities to address short-notice communication requirements.
“Due to the ample amount of training and real-world experience we have on our compact and portable communication packages, we were able to think outside of the box and better serve the needs of the mission,” said JCSE member U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Neil Howard.
For instance, JCSE’s highly mobile communications support was specifically requested by the PP13 mission commander, U.S. Navy Capt. Wallace Lovely, as he traveled to Papua New Guinea in advance of the scheduled port visit by the Australian ship HMAS Tobruk for formal engagements with key leaders and mission partners. From June 22 - 30, Howard traveled with Lovely and provided communication services to multiple users over the course of the trip using a scaled down version of the IEP.
“By using components of the IEP we created our own ‘communications-on-the-fly’ kit to travel as light as possible and provide uninterrupted communications to Captain Lovely and monitor network reliability for his advanced team,” said Howard. “We traveled 1,000 miles away and I only carried my rucksack, my backpack and my light-weight portable communications kit and a wireless router.”
Another instance of JCSE’s flexible, mission-tailored support took place at the mid-point of the deployment during a port call in the Marshall Islands. In the midst of providing communications support for a high-level engagement ceremony on board the ship, an engineering team in the field urgently requested JCSE’s support after losing connectivity.
An additional two-man JCSE team was sent to the engineering site to troubleshoot the cause of the interruption. JCSE’s instinctive ability to adapt and overcome communication issues was a key factor in the engineering team immediately regaining connectivity. JCSE’s flexible capabilities and scalable communication package proved to be a perfect fit for this incident.
“Our smaller communications kit is well-adapted for this kind of urgent call and once we received the call, our team was in the back of a pickup truck on the way to the site,” said JCSE member, U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. James Wombolt, who was part of the team supporting this mission. “We were able to answer the call within a few hours while still maintaining uninterrupted connectivity during the ceremony.”
The JCSE team’s expertise and flexibility in supporting the needs of PP13 contributed to mission success. After four-months abroad providing uninterrupted connectivity and demonstrating JCSE’s versatile capabilities, the JCSE team returns home thankful for this rewarding experience and proud that they supported such an extraordinary mission. After validating their extensive training and ability to adapt to challenges in the field, this JCSE team is even more prepared for future operational requirements.
| Date Taken: | 08.27.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 09.17.2013 10:08 |
| Story ID: | 113771 |
| Location: | NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 105 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, JCSE adapts to fluctuating mission requirements during PP13, by Julianne Sympson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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